NiSource report outlines post-coronavirus goals for its customers, communities, and partners

In its 2019 Integrated Annual Report, the utility NiSource outlined its commitments to investors, employees, communities, customers, and business partners in a world turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is a renewal of goals, for the most part, laying out in broad strokes dedications to safety, expansion into renewable resources, sustainability initiatives, and long-term investor growth.

“As we distribute our Integrated Annual Report outlining the work we did in 2019, the entire world is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic,” NiSource CEO Joe Hamrock said. “This crisis demonstrates how essential our service is to the customers and communities we serve. At the same time, the energy world is changing rapidly, and during 2019, we continued to adapt, driven by our goal of ranking among the country’s most premier regulated electric and gas companies. That work continues in 2020, as we are committed to continually improving the safety, reliability, and environmental performance of our systems, as well as service quality for our customers, and our employee experience, all with a goal of delivering increasing value for our customers.”

More specifically, the report also noted the ongoing intent to sell off all assets in Massachusetts to that state’s largest energy delivery company, Eversource Energy. That sale stems from another primary concern of the utility’s: rebuilding the trust of its stakeholders following the 2018 Merrimack Valley gas explosions, when excessive pressure in natural gas lines owned by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts — a NiSource subsidiary — caused a series of explosive fires throughout the region, killing one person but leading to the evacuation of some 30,000.

NiSource notes that it has since acted on safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board, expanding safety investments across the seven states in which it operates. All major civil claims have since been settled, and 2019 saw many restoration efforts in the Merrimack Valley, as well as the resolution of a criminal investigation.

Beyond this, NiSource has recommitted to following a Safety Management System aligned with a pipeline operator focused framework developed by the American Petroleum Institute, active pursuit of coal generation replacements — all its coal-fired generating capacity is scheduled for retirement by 2028 — and continuation of the policies that are expected to create a 90 percent reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. At this time, the company expects its replacement initiatives could save customers more than $4 billion over 30 years, while its sustainability drive will be supplemented by more than $30 billion of long-term infrastructure and safety investments over the next 20 years.